An Introduction to Magic - 141 Professional Tricks You Can Do with Coins, Cards, Silks and Billiard Balls - Secrets of Famous Stage Tricks

By Sherman Ripley

This vintage book contains instructions for mastering a variety of imaginative magic tricks that use coins, cards, balls, silks, and other common objects. With step-by-step instructions and helpful tips, “An Introduction To Magic” is ideal for aspiring magicians and would make for a fantastic addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: “Magic Tricks”, “How Magic Began”, “Silk of the Orient”, “Magic With Cards”, “Magic With Coins – For Those Who Have Them”, “Magic with Billiard Balls”, “Magic Accessories”, and “Favourite Stage Trices”. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on magic tricks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447484226

Book preview

Trick.

CHAPTER ONE

HOW MAGIC BEGAN

A Glimpse Into Its History

Magic is an ancient art. It precedes written history and is probably contemporaneous with the beginning of folklore. Ancient priests and medicine men practiced crude forms of magic. This is paralleled today in the incantations and taboos of the medicine men of primitive tribes inhabiting remote islands or living in the depths of the jungles. The history of the witch doctor, if uncovered, could well be the history of primitive man.

As civilization advanced, the position of priests, astrologers and soothsayers became increasingly important. They became advisers to kings, generals and tyrants, and rose to high rank and dignity. They were the power behind the throne.

Ancient historians record that the Pharaohs of Egypt maintained court astrologers and magicians who were held in great respect owing to their ability to chart the heavens. They professed also to hold the strange power of foretelling the future. The Bible relates in Exodus that when Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, it became a serpent. This form of magic and other Biblical miracles are beyond our understanding.

The magic of the Orient is traditional. It has held the world enthralled through centuries of folklore and legend. Of such gossamer stuff are spun the tales of the Arabian Nights.

The classic periods of Greece and Rome reflect in their history a profound faith in magic and mystery. The Greeks of the Golden Age and the Romans at the height of their power believed implicitly in their oracles and astrologers. Wizards made prophecies, read the heavens, cast horoscopes and predicted future events. Indeed, they read the will of the gods.

During the reign of King Arthur, legendary British ruler immortalized in story and song by Mallory and Tennyson, a dark and mysterious power in the court was the magician, Merlin. This wizard cast weird spells and uttered magical incantations. Legend states that he had gained these powers from the Druids, an ancient religious sect. By his cunning and occult wisdom he influenced the very life and times of King Arthur’s reign.

All through medieval history, a period of superstition and ignorance, a strange array of alchemists sought the Philosopher’s Stone. With this they hoped to transmute baser metals into gold. These magi of the Dark Ages were a mixture of astrologer, faker, chemist and fortune-teller. They sold nostrums, charms, love-potions and for a consideration—poisons. Some, such as the successful charlatan, Cagliostro, prospered on the backwardness and superstitions of that credulous age. Others, however, were sincere and devoted students of science, pioneers in the field of pharmacy, anatomy and chemistry.

As civilization continued to advance, a division of labor and authority arose among the various groups professing higher social functions. The clergy naturally became the interpreters of the wishes and precepts of the Divine Spirit. An enlightened medical profession shouldered the burden of humanity’s ills. Fortune-tellers, their prestige greatly deflated, still read futures in cards and teacups. And as for the magician—he continued to perform miracles!

The modern magician takes his magic lightly. In our enlightened age he is merely a clever entertainer, a suave and genial actor, playing the part of a man of mystery. He does not profess supernatural powers, but rather admits his trickery. He challenges your intelligence however, and asks you to discover how his illusions are performed.

Perhaps that is why magic will always be popular.

The Value of Magic

To study magic as a hobby is a great satisfaction, and a source of pleasure to oneself and to others. It is truly a rewarding avocation, that may be developed into an art. In studying magic you learn how to stand up before an audience and to express yourself clearly and convincingly, acquiring at the same time poise, self-confidence, grace and assurance. Magic, with all its oddities, makes you a genuine human being. There is an old maxim among magicians: You don’t have to be crazy to be a magician, but it helps!

The abilities acquired while studying magic are assets for success in life. But, like everything else worth while, they demand exacting study and practice.

The following chapters explain how one can entertain friends with simple and informal magic needing but little study and effort. In time, you will probably want to delve deep into the inner mysteries of this fascinating subject, and develop real skill and dexterity.

First Things First

Do not expect to become a finished artist over night. It is safer too not to saw a lady in half at your first church social. Beginners often try to present tricks before fully mastering them. Better be sure of the trick, the talk, the routine before you present an effect. The secrets of success are study and practice. For magicians, practice before a full-length mirror is most important. Observing yourself from all angles, you see just how to stand, how to hold your arms, and how to make the best impression, The greatest magicians spent long practice periods before mirrors, scrutinizing every move before the presentation of an effect.

Starting Out To Mystify

Never expose magic. Never tell anyone how a trick is done. Any explanation takes away the mystery and spoils the effect of other tricks that you may perform later. Keep them guessing and send them away laughing.

Misdirection

There’s an old saying: The quickness of the hand deceives the eye. This is only a half-truth. Actually the magician makes his audience look in the wrong place. This is known as misdirection. Here are some practical rules of misdirection:

The audience will look where you look.

The audience will look at anything that moves.

The audience will look at anything to which you point.

The audience will look toward a flash of light, a loud noise, a stumble or fall, a seeming accident.

If you hold out your left hand as if there were something in it, and at the same time wiggle the fingers a little, your audience will stare at it. If you look at this hand, and at the same time point at it with your right, the effect will be heightened (Fig. 1). Now, if you toss an imaginary something into the air, at the same time following its flight with your eyes, your audience will do the same. Try this; it is a lesson in misdirection. However you must devise a plausible reason for actions or words that direct the eyes of the audience.

FIGURE 1

The Magician’s Clothes

A magician often says, My pockets are perfectly empty—as usual! In an ordinary suit the trousers have two large pockets in front and two in back. In the coat there are two large side pockets, a left-hand outer breast pocket and a right-hand inside breast pocket. The vest has two upper and two lower pockets. All of these pockets can be used in magic without any special preparation.

In general, little preparation will be needed in the matter of clothing. However, in a few tricks where this is required, as in the silk production and the billiard ball production, certain special preparations will be described in connection with the trick. Some magicians prefer to entertain with their sleeves rolled up. They slide the coat sleeves up, and the shirt sleeves are turned over them in two or three folds.

Tables and Accessories

Any ordinary small table will do for many tricks. It is best to use a brightly colored cover to throw over your table in order to dress it up a little. Black velvet is useful for concealing things on the table, because black objects are lost against this background. However, some magicians think a black velvet drape or cover looks tricky. It is therefore better perhaps, to use an innocent-looking, colored drape and an ordinary-looking table. If you have a small portable table you can rig it up as follows: make a trap by cutting a hole in the front center of it. Hang a pocket below this hole to catch whatever you decide to vanish into the trap. The pocket should be the same color as the drape. This open hole will be invisible a few feet away. It doesn’t need to be covered, but the drape must be long enough to cover the pocket from all angles.

You can easily make a servante, or hidden tray for the back of your table. Simply bend a heavy ware in a half-circle, and fasten it at both ends under the back of the table with eyelets or bent nails, so that it slides in and out. When pushed under the table it cannot be seen even from the side. When pulled out it makes a convenient place upon which to vanish any small object. Sew a cloth pocket about an inch and a half deep around the wire frame. This servante slides entirely out of the table when you don’t want to use it. Of course there is a section cut out of the back drape to allow for the projection of the servante. Similar servantes may be used on chairs, attached with hooks, wires, thumb tacks or rubber suckers. A box servante is good; it is simply a colorful box from which you take any item needed in your show. You may vanish articles into or behind it by placing a wand or fan across the top of the box.

You can